New 3D printer could create nano-devices in minutes

A new 3D printing technology can print detailed nanoscale objects in a matter …

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have developed a 3D printing technology that can quickly print detailed objects in nanoscale using a process called two-photon lithography. It's fast, too: the precision required to print objects with features measured in hundreds of nanometers in width meant the speed of previous attempts at printing nanoscale objects were measured in millimeters per second. In contrast, the TU Vienna team's 3D printer is capable of printing lines of resin at a rate of five meters per second. In a demonstration shown in the video below, the team was able to print a nanoscale model of a 300-micrometer long Formula 1 racecar—made from 100 layers of resin, each consisting of approximately 200 individual lines—in four minutes.

A 330x130x100 micrometer race car, printed in four minutes (Vienna University of Technology video).

The new process, developed as part of the European Commision's PhoCam program for developing "factories of the future," could make it practical and affordable to print intricate nano-scale structures for use in microscopic machinery and medical applications. One of those is "scaffolds" for promoting the growth of custom-made living tissues from cells, giving cells a structure to stick to. "The technique already showed good applicability for fabricating 3D environments for cells," TU Vienna researcher Jan Torgersen told Ars in an e-mail exchange about the research.

Torgensen added that since the two-photon process isn't limited to printing in layers, but can draw lines in three dimensions, it can be used to embed and connect objects as well. For example, he said, the team has already successfully fabricated nanoscale optical waveguides into an existing electrical matrix. "These waveguides are very promising for various optoelectronic applications," he said.

bspoel beat me to it, but two voices are better than one. The video shows the scale clearly in microns (micrometers), so it'd be good to correctly report the size of this fab. As the article stands right now, without the video included and linked-to correct article, we'd be led to believe the car were 1000x smaller than it actually is.

Anyone got any more info on the properties of the resulting resin solid?

Just in terms of possible uses for the output. Also obviously this is constructed in a lab setting but the kind of macro scales possible (how big the unit is and the power requirements, plus the current max dimensions of the constructed objects) would be interesting.

Well, you could print your own male idols and use them in porn ... unless you live in Alabama.

I wonder, could the laws of a State preclude manufacturers from selling 3D printers because they "enable" consumers to create objects that may be against the law? And not just for copyright purposes ...

Anyone got any more info on the properties of the resulting resin solid?

Just in terms of possible uses for the output. Also obviously this is constructed in a lab setting but the kind of macro scales possible (how big the unit is and the power requirements, plus the current max dimensions of the constructed objects) would be interesting.

utilized photopolymers can be widely modified regarding their mechanical properties. By choosing different monomers and by changing the degree of cross linking the elastic modulus and the strength of the final product can be tailored quite easily. Additionally, by careful selection of specific monomers biocompatible and biodegradable monomers can be formed.

This type of work has been done for like a decade. They do seem to have it going pretty fast which probably results from expensive beam/motion control plus very reactive/low threshold initiators for the resin allowing for the short exposure time. Not sure which really makes the difference here. You can see in the picture from their site that the device does not appear to be very compact. Those big grey things are slaps of granite.

Well, you could print your own male idols and use them in porn ... unless you live in Alabama.

I wonder, could the laws of a State preclude manufacturers from selling 3D printers because they "enable" consumers to create objects that may be against the law? And not just for copyright purposes ...

Ever used a lathe to turn the body of a one hitter? Clearly illegal but as any high schooler in shop class in the early nineties could tell you.......

3D printing has the same problem 2D printing will have - not patents, but rather copyrights. You will be able to "pirate" a physical product without actually stealing it. The legal implications are still being worked out amongst 3D printer manufacturers.

I wonder, could the laws of a State preclude manufacturers from selling 3D printers because they "enable" consumers to create objects that may be against the law? And not just for copyright purposes ...

They can try, but if you thought the RIAA and MPAA made things messy for digital copies, just wait until people can "pirate" physical goods and the manufacturers and retailers realize they have been rendered redundant. It's going to be awesome.

When this printer can print in metal instead of resin, I am thinking the world of microcircuitry is gonna get PRETTY friggin interesting, considering a very small company with a few skilled designers could come up with custom chips for damn near anything on a per-request basis....

Maybe it's time for me to form that start-up to take over the business world with like I always wanted.

In other news, Verleiben GMbH (a division of HK biotech firm Versalife) announced that it was very pleased with the results of the development and research, which it co-funded in exchange for full access to proceedings of any unpublished development work.

When this printer can print in metal instead of resin, I am thinking the world of microcircuitry is gonna get PRETTY friggin interesting, considering a very small company with a few skilled designers could come up with custom chips for damn near anything on a per-request basis....

Maybe it's time for me to form that start-up to take over the business world with like I always wanted.

Somebody will come up with a fun use for these that can make money. I am thinking of the Build a Bear workshops that they have in malls. Build an Anything workshop will be fun. Some products are fairly homogenous (e'g', glassware, plates, golf Clubs, etc.). It would be great to go into a store and have your product made custom for you. The only inventory would be resin. It will be interesting to see where this takes us.

Can they make a knife with an edge one molecule thick? I have a comic book trope to test.

from comic books? damn. i thought my D&D buddies made that up. d6 blow to what i thought their creativity was.

This thing seems to use lasers to selectively-harden plastic. Not really all that useful for blades.

Glass/obsidian still seems to be the best way to go for ultrafine-blades, because it's a monomaterial that grows in long, fine crystalline structures. Glass is, of course, very fragile outside of the lab environment.

Compare to steel, which is a matrix of iron and various alloying carbides which, at the molecular level, looks and works like concrete. You can sharpen steel blades to the half-micron level without too much trouble, but imagine sharpening concrete: eventually, you're just polishing around the aggregates until they break out of the cement. Diamond works best for polishing because the abrasive bits are hard and sharp enough to actually cut into the carbides and give a more consistent edge, but eventually all sharpening comes to the limit of the material, and by that point steel can whittle a human hair into a tiny spruce tree so nobody but eye surgeons considers this a real "problem."

Razors, for example, are made of a low-alloy steel and sharpened in a very complicated process to make the edge as smooth as possible, compared to pocket knives which use alloyed steel that will take (relatively) forever to wear down when sharpened to an aggressive and (relatively) coarse edge.

Just give me a bigger model so I can download vehicles from the net. No, I wouldn't steal a car, but I would copyright infringe it.

With patents, they are declared and documented in a way that they can easily be reconstructed, as long as it's for personal use and not for sale until the patent expires. Design patents were made for boat hulls, which I assume would also qualify car models.

Where would copyright fit in here since cars are a functional item (unless it was 3D-printer instruction files)? I imagine a 'fair use' argument being conjured by consumers if businesses went the copyright route to protect their profits, especially for replacement parts.

When this printer can print in metal instead of resin, I am thinking the world of microcircuitry is gonna get PRETTY friggin interesting, considering a very small company with a few skilled designers could come up with custom chips for damn near anything on a per-request basis....

I wouldn't quite go that far...the feature size this thing supports is larger than what e.g. modern CPUs use by an order of magnitude. Therefore, even if you hypothetically have one that can print the appropriate doped silicon for transistors, the subset of chips you could handle would be on the limited side. You'd probably be better off sticking with FPGAs.